Realtors are suddenly abandoning Toronto's struggling real estate market

For the first time in as long as monthly data has been available, the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) — the largest group of its kind in Canada — has seen a drop in membership numbers, serving as just another indication of the trouble the market is in.

Selling homes has typically been an extremely lucrative profession in the city, with its insatiable demand, ever-higher prices and high commission cheques.

But, sales have dwindled to rock-bottom levels in recent months, especially for condos, which were once an easy sell to investors, but are now flooding the market with nary a buyer in sight.

TRREB's members at end of July 2024: 73,315
⬇️1,363 since July 2023

Notable: first time YoY membership numbers have declined since I have monthly data (back to 2016).

The last 3 months of 2021 the YoY net growth averaged 7,877 members. Bandwagon has lost a lot of steam.

— Scott Ingram REALTOR® (@areacode416) August 21, 2024

The TRREB stats were shared to X by member Scott Ingram late last month, who wrote that the board was down 1,363 realtors in July 2024 compared to the same time last year, marking the first time year-over-year membership had fallen since at least 2016.

Though this only represents around two per cent of the professional body's total, now at 73,315 agents and brokers, it appears to signify that the interest in the industry has "lost a lot of steam" — both from would-be buyers, based on the sales data, and also those on the inside.

Homes going for far less than owners paid for them just years ago, new projects going into limbo or worse, receivership, and more homes than ever sitting on the market for longer are just some other indications of how things are going in Toronto real estate right now. And still, our exorbitant prices will hardly budge.